


Four in the morning

by Little_Firestar84



Category: NCIS
Genre: Episode Tag, Eventual Romance, F/M, Flash Fic, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Post-Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 19:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14677671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Firestar84/pseuds/Little_Firestar84
Summary: He doesn’t want company. All he wants to do is nursing a drink, swallowing in self-pity and pretend, come morning, that he had a good sleep and that they all are just cogs in a machine. Post season finale.





	Four in the morning

**Author's Note:**

> _"But it hurts when I think, when I let it sink in, it's all over me I'm lying here in the dark, [...] it hurts a lot..." Gwen Stefani, Four in the morning._

Even if he isn’t asleep and the knocking is insistent, Nick doesn’t hear it. Or maybe, just maybe, he pretends to – he is lost in his thoughts, sitting on his old couch in the semi-darkness at four in the morning, his eyes glassy and hi mind filled with images of the past- of friends and brothers and family lost to him forever. 

He doesn’t want company. All he wants to do is nursing a drink, swallowing in self-pity and pretend, come morning, that he had a good sleep and that they all are just cogs in a machine and he is hard-assed and nothing really touches him, at all, (it’s a lie, and he is a talented liar- so good that sometimes he even believes his own lies) but the knocking doesn’t stop, it just _won’t_ stop. 

He crosses the room in long strides, throwing the door open. He eyes are red – he’s been crying, not that he will ever admit it- and he clenches his teeth, his fists, ready to tear a new one to whoever dared to disturb his pity-party.There’s so much rage and regret and just _the world is an ugly place from the bottom of my heart_ in his eyes that Bishop takes a step back when she sees him before her, her closed fist still in mid-air.

She swallows, not saying a word- not daring to, and she wonders what Nick will do- what he will say, for in the two years they’ve worked together, she’s never seen that look in his eyes. But then, everything changes, like finally, _finally,_ he recognizes her, recognizes the error in his ways, and his features just… transform. 

It’s not the cheeky, flirty, full-of-himself alpha male Torres she sees every day at work, but it’s not even the man who opened the door. He is just Nick, a man who lost his family and doesn’t know how to handle it. But the fact is, she doesn’t either, and she’s never been too good at being alone (being alone, it’s just not the best version of Eleanor Bishop) so she decides, for once, to follow her instinct. 

She closes the distance between herself and Nick, and, she circles his waist with her delicate arms, she buries her head in his chest- she hides herself to the world as she cries and cries and cries so more in his t-shirt, just _sobbing,_ finally letting it out like she hadn’t done in… in a lifetime. But it’s been too much, the last straw, and she needs this, here and now. 

Nick doesn’t say anything. He just takes Bishop in his arms, holding her firmly against his body, like she was the most treasured item he had ever laid eyes on (she is), and, in silence, he buries his nose in her hair, as he draws invisible and meaningless patterns on her jean jacket with his fingertips, trying to sooth her, just being there with her, because he knows. 

They had tried going at it alone, and it didn’t work out. But together- they can be a force to be reckoned with, and there’s nothing they can’t overcome. 


End file.
